For proof of the magnitude, before the football game was set to kick off today, Nebraska's entire team walked out to midfield.

There, they were joined by Penn State's players past and present, and, together, knelt on the turf and bowed their heads. They prayed for victims of sexual abuse as more than 100,000 fans looked on, nearly muted.

The game played out against the backdrop of one of the most tumultuous weeks in college football history.

Likely for the rest of time, Penn State will be mentioned along with the Marshall football team's plane crash of 1970, Maryland basketball star Len Bias' death from a cocaine overdose in 1986, and the lurid Duke lacrosse scandal of 2006 as college sports' most stigmatizing moments.

"Emotions were a roller coaster this week," Penn State linebacker Nate Stupar said. "It's up-and-down, up-and-down. As soon as you get into practice, everything else just disappears. All of a sudden you're done with practice, the real world hits you every time."

The descent for Penn State started last week, when former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was arrested and charged with 40 counts related to alleged child sexual abuse of eight young boys over a span of 15 years. Included in the heinous allegations was that some of the abuse took place within Penn State's football facilities -- and after some of the university's leadership had been alerted.

In 2002, then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary allegedly witnessed Sandusky sodomizing a 10-year-old boy in the Penn State football showers. McQueary told Paterno, who alerted athletic director Tim Curley; neither McQueary nor Paterno contacted law enforcement officials. Because of that, it was later determined Paterno had not done enough in response to the allegations, and he and president Graham Spanier were fired Wednesday night by the Penn State Board of Trustees.

That meant today the Nittany Lions played their first game without Paterno — lovingly known as "JoePa" around these parts — on staff in six decades and as the head coach for the first time since 1966. In all, he spent 46 seasons as head coach of Penn State, winning 409 games, the most of any coach in Division 1 history.

A handful of times this afternoon, mostly toward the end of the game, the crowd of 107,903 at Beaver Stadium broke into chants of "Joe-Pa! Joe-Pa! Joe-Pa!"

"We've had better weeks in our lives, obviously," said Penn State quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno, Joe's son. "The world's kind of turned upside-down, but I think our kids were resilient."

Today's game marked the end of a week in which the emotions coloring the Penn State community seemed to morph each day. There was despair when the Sandusky allegations came to light. Outrage when Paterno was fired, prompting a couple thousand students to riot down College Avenue on Wednesday night, flipping a news van and destroying anything they could get their hands on. Shame the next day for the picture the protests painted of the university.

And, finally, a shared sense of pride and compassion as the university community rallied Friday night at a campus vigil held for the victims of Sandusky's alleged abuse, and today for Senior Day at Beaver Stadium.

Instead of the usual "white-out," Penn State fans had a "blue-out" by wearing blue clothing, which represents support for stopping child abuse. It was announced that about $22,000 was raised for the cause. The Penn State sideline was bloated with former Nittany Lions players, who rallied in support of the beleaguered football program by coming from near and far in droves.

The fallout from the Sandusky scandal has been swift. Paterno, Curley, Spanier and senior vice president for finance Gary Schultz were each removed from the school last week. The allegations against Sandusky -- as well as a possible cover-up -- are being investigated by the Pennsylvania attorney general and a special committee appointed by the Board of Trustees.

At 10:20 a.m. on the dot — like at previous games — a line of blue-and-white school buses carrying the players drove up the street toward Beaver Stadium and hung a left on Curtin Road. As soon as they were spotted, car horns across the parking lots honked. RV horns blared in deep wails. Children took off in sprints and chased the rumbling engines. Blue-and-white clad fans stopped and screamed.

This Penn State football routine has long been established, but there was one noticeable difference to what almost appeared normal. The first seat on the first bus in the line — the one Paterno always sat in — was empty.

It was left vacant for the man who took the program to such astounding heights, only to meet his demise in a most unseemly way.

On Paterno's lawn before today's game were three signs facing the house that read, "We love you Joe," and "Penn State Forever," and "Thank You, Joe."

One middle-aged man walking by in a Penn State jersey lifted his soda can and shattered the silence with, "Good Morning, Joe!" as he never broke stride. A few kids approached the house without fear, dropping items on the front stoop, and moved on.

"I'm empty inside," said Scott Fitzkee, a 1979 Penn State graduate who played wide receiver on the football team. "I came into Penn State as an 18-year-old kid and I graduated as a 22-year-old man because of Joe. Besides my father, Joe has been one of the most influential people in my life."

Nebraska jumped out to a 17-0 lead in the second half, sucking the energy out of a crowd that already seemed emotionally spent. But then the rally began: The Nittany Lions scored a touchdown in the third quarter. Then another in the final period to pull within 17-14.

When two late drives in the fourth quarter fell short, and the game clock read zeros across, there was a moment where it was uncertain how the fans packed in the stadium would react, considering the waves of emotion this past week.

Then the chant started, perhaps louder than at any other time today.

"We are!" one side of Beaver Stadium shouted, breaking into the university's signature athletic call.